![]() ![]() To guard against danger from the extreme height of houses, Augustus restricted the height of all new houses which were built by the side of the public roads to In many houses each story was let out to separate tenants, the highest floors being usually inhabited by the poor (Cic. Houses were originally only one story high but as the value of ground increased in the city they were built several stories in height. It was brought as a charge of extravagance against Caelius that he paid 30 sestertia (about 266 l.) for the rent of his house The house-rent, which persons in poor circumstances usually paid at Rome, was about 2000 sesterces, between 17 l. The house of P. Clodius, whom Milo killed, cost 14,800 sestertia (about 131,000 l.) and the Tusculan villa of Scaurus was fitted up with such magnificence, that when it was burnt by his slaves, he lost 100,000 sestertia, upwards of 885,000 l. The consul Messalla bought the house of Autronius for 3700 sestertia (nearly 33,000 l.), and Cicero the house of Crassus, on the Palatine, for 3500 sestertia (nearly 31,000 l.) (Cic.Īd p427 Fam. XXXVI.7) Some idea may be formed of the size and magnificence of the houses of the Roman nobles during the later times of the republic by the price which they fetched. ![]() ![]() Mamurra, who was Caesar's praefectus fabrum in Gaul, set the example of lining his room with slabs of marbles The Romans were exceedingly partial to marble for the decoration of their houses. thirty-eight feet high, and of such immense weight that the contractor of the sewers took security for any injury that might be done to the sewers in consequence of the columns being carried along the streets.He was soon outdone by M. Scaurus, who placed in his atrium columns of black marble, called Lucullean, twelve feet in height, and were only six in number.Marble columns were first introduced into private houses by the orator L. Crassus, but they did not exceed Lucullus especially surpassed all his contemporaries in the magnificence of his houses and the splendour of their decorations. M. Lepidus, who was consul B.C. 78, was the first who introduced Numidian marble into Rome for the purpose of paving the threshold of his house but the fashion of building magnificent houses increased so rapidly that the house of Lepidus, which, in his consulship, was the first in Rome, was, thirty-five years later, eclipsed by a hundred others It was not till the latter times of the republic, when wealth had been acquired by conquests in the East, that houses of any splendour began to be built but it then became the fashion not only to build houses of an immense size, but also to adorn them with columns, paintings, statues, and costly works of art. XVI.15), and were usually built of wood or unbaked bricks. Till the war with Pyrrhus the houses were covered only with thatch or shingles The houses of the Romans were poor and mean for many centuries after the foundation of the city. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875. ![]()
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